TeachersFirst's Resources for Black History

These reviewed resources from TeachersFirst include teaching ideas, research material, and interactive sites for studying Black History in all grades. Black History does not need to be limited to one month of the year. As students learn about any historical time period or famous figures, check these resources for a perspective from the lives of African Americans at the same time or with the same interests. Perhaps even ask students to juxtapose two different experiences (African American, Hispanic, affluent, poor, etc.) in research projects about inventors, artists, writers, or American life.

Explore the life of Nelson Mandela with this informative site from Biography.com. Contents include facts of Mandela's life, photos, and videos profiling his life and leadership. One especially useful portion of the site includes a printable study guide including vocabulary, extension activities, and more. There is a lot here to explore.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector as an introduction to your Civil Rights, Black History, or Heroes unit. Allow students to explore on their own. Use the study guide as a resource for vocabulary, deepening understanding, or for extension activities. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare Nelson Mandela to other Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King. Have students create timelines about Civil Rights (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Capzles (reviewed here). Have students use Fakebook (reviewed here) to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about Civil Rights leaders.

Find a good introduction and overview of the life of Nelson Mandela geared toward elementary students (and middle school). View basic information, such as why Mandela is famous. Take a look at young Mandela, problems in South Africa, and his life as a world statesman. Scroll through several fun facts about Mandela, play a game of Audience with Mandela, explore photographs and videos, or take a short quiz. This site was created in the UK. American English speakers may notice some slight spelling or vocabulary differences.

In the Classroom

Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson for Black History Month or about heroes in Civil Rights. As you discuss Martin Luther King, Jr, include discussion of major Civil Rights leaders from other countries. Have students create an annotated image of Nelson Mandela including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Have students create maps of Mandela's journeys using Animaps (reviewed here). Students can add text, images, and location stops! Have students create timelines (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Capzles (reviewed here).

Explore information and facts about the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nelson Mandela, straight from the Nobel Prize website. In addition to basic biographical information, view videos of Mandela's Nobel lecture, a bibliography of his writings, a photo gallery and much more. The question and answer portion of the site contains basic information useful for even the youngest students, while older students may enjoy exploring the wall to find comments shared by the site's readers.

In the Classroom

Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. This site is perfect to include with Black History Month activities or in a unit on Civil Rights leaders. Have students create a simple infographic with words used to describe Mandela sharing their findings using Easel.ly, reviewed here or Venngage reviewed here. Have students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from this site using a tool such as Wordle (reviewed here), Tagxedo (reviewed here), or WordItOut (reviewed here). Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare South Africa at the time of Mandela's arrest to current South Africa. Have students use Fakebook (reviewed here) to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about Mandela during his time in prison or after his release.

Follow the stories of four African slaves as they were taken on board a transatlantic slave ship in 1780. Begin as you meet your guides from four different tribes. Choose a story teller to begin. Each guide begins to tell the story of their family life and cultural information. Click on underlined terms to view more information or find the definition to a vocabulary word.

In the Classroom

View this site together on your interactive whiteboard or projector. It would be an interesting counterpoint if your class is reading Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer, even though the time frame is not identical. Allow students to explore on their own. Challenge cooperative groups to read a specific "journey." What was the biggest surprise in the story? What did they already know about slavery? Have groups use a mapping tool such as Mapskip (reviewed here) to create a map of slavery voyages. They can even include audio "stories" and pictures.

AwesomeStories is a one stop shop of primary source materials. It is a gathering place of sources located at national archives, libraries, universities, museums, historical societies and government-created websites. The site includes documents, videos, audio clips and narrations. Topics range from the Women's Movement to Emperor Penguins to Abraham Lincoln to the Easter Story (through medieval/renaissance art) and much more. Search by biography, disaster, trials, flicks, history, philosophy, sports, or the arts. You can also search by lesson plans, narrations, slide shows, videos, images, audio clips, documentaries, and more! You can also take advantage of the Visual Vocabulary to learn vocabulary related to many of the stories and video clips available at this site.

In the Classroom

Use this rich site to support your social studies, history, science, language arts classroom and many others! There is a lot here to explore and many diverse topics. Use the Visual Vocabulary Builder to introduce your students to new vocabulary in a different way. Middle and high schoolers could use the movies to teach about character development and themes. The site includes several lesson plans that help you teach with current movies. Have your students use the site to find historical images to use in presentations. (Be sure to check the licensing on any image you use and cite it properly.) Project the video clips using an interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce students to a unit of study. Challenge small groups of students to explore one of the topics presented at this site and share their "story" with the rest of the class. Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Many texts on this site are also useful examples of informational texts for practice of Common Core standards.

Use this tool to search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most of these photographs were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google. The original photographs were hard copies that have been scanned by Google. These images can be used for personal or research purposes (though at this time, images contain a Time Warner stamp that seems to limit its fair use.) Images are organized by decade and category but can be searched by name, date, subject, location, and even by photographer. View different channels of history: news, celebrity, travel, animals, and sports. The archive can be accessed through this website, or by simply adding the phrase "source: life" to any Google image search.

In the Classroom

Use the many images and caption of various events to bring the history alive. View Black History events and many other landmark events to life that simple passages in a textbook cannot. Use a specific image to share with the class and have them journal what they see in the picture, what they think is going on, and questions that they have about the image. Use their thoughts to begin discussion about the historical significance of the image. Use other images and research to develop a full understanding of the event. Students can parallel that event with other similar events through history and present their findings to the class. Virtually any recent (1860s through the present day) historical or news topic might be augmented by an accompanying photo on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to click to open the largest version of the image! Students might generate their own "collections" of related photographs to illustrate a topic or theme, or create a photo montage to capture a time period. Art teachers can also use these masterpieces in teaching design concepts and composition. Under Fair Use, your students can certainly use these photos in class projects, but our editors would not suggest copying and posting them on the web in blogs or wikis, since this could be seen as making unlimited copies. You can easily include them as linked images, however, to appear seamlessly on the blog or wiki page. What a great way to teach about giving proper credit as your students create annotated, thematic collections on a historical or literary topic.

"Picturing U.S. History" helps you use visual evidence to learn about the past. The subtitle "Lessons in Looking" tells it all. The lessons are very detailed and flexible. Primary source media includes: photographs, drawings, paintings, political cartoons, print media, statuary, furniture, and collectibles. Additional links provide explanations of historical and culture behind the images used at the site.

In the Classroom

The "Lessons on Looking" can be used for a single class period or over several periods. Using a projector or interactive whiteboard, use the zoom tool to look at one aspect of the picture and have students interpret the image. Challenge your students to create a web exhibit collection about a historical topic using a tool such as Bag The Web (reviewed here). Students can share all of the important links, information, and even brief descriptions that they find on this site.

This read-aloud collection, written by an experienced elementary library/media specialist, includes books to read aloud in elementary classes. It also includes the lessons ideas to do before, during, and after the read-aloud. Infuse an extra measure of history into your curriculum and tap into the richness of our nation's story while you build reading and listening skills. The books about the Civil War and related topics include a wealth of fictional and informational literature to share with your students. The lists and related activities are segmented into lower, middle, and upper elementary. There are Lexile''® levels for the books (where available). If your library does not have the books you want to use from this list, try using the ISBN numbers to borrow them on interlibrary loan from a public library nearby.

In the Classroom

These read-alouds are perfect during February celebrations of Presidents Day and Black History Month but could be used any time. If your social studies curriculum includes the CIvil War or you simply want to connect the interrelated topics of Lincoln, slavery, and the Civil War, this is a great place to start.

The Brown Bookcase showcases literature for young readers written by and featuring people of color. View archives going back to 2007 to find book reviews, author's chats, and some videos that accompany books featured on the site. A flagship feature of the site is the 28 Days Later portion. Each day during Black History Month features a different author. It is a month-long showcase of the best in Picture Books, Middle Grade, and Young Adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans to help parents, teachers, librarians and booksellers recommend good reads. Archives are available beginning with the 2008 campaign.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Bookmark this site for use throughout the year, not just during Black History Month. Create a link on classroom computers for students to explore and find books for reading. Share this link on your class website or blog for students to use at home. Showcase books found on this site for classroom readalouds. Have students create commercials for books found on this site and share them using a tool such as SchoolTube reviewed here.

Film Story is a great listing of history films searchable by country, era, subject, and film type (feature film, documentary, or mini-series). Another helpful feature is when you roll your cursor over the map, the region and how many films are available will pop up. Film Story's goal is to help you learn more about historical people, places, and events through film. Once you click on a film, you see the era, type of film, etc. and several themes. All of these are links to other films in these categories. Film story is simply a directory. Search out the films you find on your favorite search engine and borrow them from a library or video store. No registration required to use this site.

In the Classroom

Discover videos on Film Story to help build prior knowledge and illustrate what students are learning in history or world languages/cultures classes. Find several films and have small groups of students view them. Have students become "eyewitnesses" to history and watch the video assigned to them before they have a context for it. Then have them write or blog about what they think they are witnessing. Afterward they can research the event in more depth and write a follow-up reflection on what was actually happening in the video. Challenge your students to use a site such as Timetoast reviewed here, to create timelines of topics researched on the site. Use images from public domain sites, such as the collections reviewed here, to illustrate the events.

This site has strong content focused on the historical importance of the Negro Leagues Baseball teams. It also has a very rich assortment of lesson plans for teaching about the Negro Leagues. There is an introductory video for a good overview of the Leagues themselves, the offerings of the NLB Museum, and a searchable archive of photographs and multimedia resources that can be used either in conjunction with the lesson plans (which include national standards benchmarks), or independently.

In the Classroom

This is a great resource for "hooking" students who are interested in sports into the study of the Civil Rights Movement or modern US History. Consider including the resources here in your recognition of Black History Month as well. Share the introductory video on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Challenge cooperative learning groups to explore a specific part of this site and create an online poster on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here) or PicLits (reviewed here.

The Dream Flag Project is a poetry-humanity project that fits into any unit on writing, poetry, character development, history, art, social issues, or community service. Reading, writing, critical thinking, and artistic expression activities are available for a wide range of abilities and grades. Start with Langston Hughes, "The Dream Keeper" and his collection of poetry. Explore an introduction to the Harlem Renaissance and black history or focus on goal-setting to make the dream come true. This collaborative project is created by teachers for teachers with a step-by-step approach. The resources include ideas, lesson plans, printable handouts, opportunities to collaborate, and examples.

In the Classroom

Transform your classroom into a community of poets and dreamers and even choose to participate in a global project by writing and sharing poems with students around the world. Share this site during Poetry Month. You'll love seeing the pride in students as they engage in reading, writing, creating, and sharing poetry that reflects their hopes and dreams for today and the future. Introduce the extensive photos, videos, and other resources on a projector or an interactive whiteboard. There are "quick links" to an abundance of resources. The outcomes can range from poetry reading and writing to integrating music, theater, videotaping, or social networking (be sure to check with your school's policies). Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. This can be done in a sixty minute lesson or expanded to a year long theme. It's your choice!

Find parent information and the ideas to help their kids reach their full potential and make learning fun. There are also many resources for classroom teachers, making the site worthwhile for both. The site is very large, and there is much to explore (articles, lesson activities, worksheets, and more). Find grade-level specific links on the left-hand side, from before Pre-School all the way to High School. Search by topic or browse by age, topic, or featured information. Other methods to browse include menus for Just Ask, Activities, Worksheets, Video, and more. Featured topics each month include back to school information, kindergarten readiness, what to expect in various grade levels, bullying, and other topics relevant to school-age children. There is also a free smartphone app. You can also sign up for the weekly newsletter including a new activity each week.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Find information on current education topics such as bullying, creative arts, and more to use in the classroom or share with parents during conferences or in classroom newsletters. Share this site with parents as a resource to help them understand academic, social, and developmental benchmarks expected with each grade level and as a resource for additional activities and worksheets to help support classroom learning. Peruse the many articles related to everything education (for both parents and teachers).

Find downloadable pdfs and templates to support US History social studies curriculum. An extensive list of offerings includes items from maps to events to documents etc. The site also includes limited suggestions on how to use the offerings. There are also links to other maps at this carefully documented site. Scroll down to see the letter from the person who created the originals, as the "Read Me First" note suggests.

In the Classroom

Even if you do not have time to explore all the offerings, check the list of activities often to enrich your background information on U.S. historical events and people and your lessons. Search for templates or maps that are useful to what you are currently studying.

This site contains an in-depth look at the Greensboro Sit-Ins that took place on February 1, 1960. You can hear the mayor of the time, George Roach, talk about how the city avoided violent incidents (such as those in Birmingham, Alabama.) Several other features will give you a feel for the era and the significance of the sit-ins. Take a look at the video clips or listen to the audio files. There is also a timeline, complete with historic photos. Don't miss the historical photos and stories from the News & Record archives, with a photo from the first day of the sit-ins. The site includes a look at what the Greensboro Public Library has to offer on the subject. There is even an electronic bulletin board, where visitors can write what they think - or, for many, remember - about the sit-ins and see what other people have said. There are extensive links to other civil rights and black history sites. A PDF version of the February 1, 1960, newspaper detailing all of the events is also available. You will find the site especially informative because of the way it is organized. Don't miss this intriguing look at this historical time in American history.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students to explore on their own. Have students create a news report as a multimedia presentation using Thinglink, reviewed here. This site allows users to narrate a picture. Have students find Creative Commons images for their news report using a site (with credit, of course), like Compfight, reviewed here. Challenge your students to use a site such as Timetoast reviewed here to include the Greensboro Sit-ins in a timeline of the Civil Rights Movement. After viewing the site, ask students to research events in your state or city that related to the Civil Rights Movement.

At first glance this site may appear to be just a compilation of Newbery and Caldecott winning books; however, after diving in and exploring there is much more for classroom teachers, media specialists, and parents. Each week the site offers a synopsis of a Book of the Week; monthly there is an author interview. Archives share previous offerings all the way back to 2003 (at the time of this review). The links on the left side of the page make it easier to find specific books by topic, such as Black History, Recommendations for age 9 and up, and letters & sounds. Don't miss the section about children's illustrators, located in links on the left. It contains an incredibly long list of links to information about specific children's authors. (Note: some links were broken, but most are not.) The site also offers an email newsletter. Some of the descriptions offer the opportunity to purchase the book at Amazon.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Classroom teachers and schools without access to a Media Specialist can use this site to stay current on children's literature offerings and book awards. Use this site before reading a book for information about the author to share with your classroom. Locate books geared toward specific student interests using the category links on the left. Share this site on your classroom blog or website as a resource for parents and students to find books for independent reading. Use this site to find books specific to classroom topics such as nature books, picture books, or science and math books. Set up literature circles based on a topic.

The International Civil Rights Center & Museum site highlights the non-violent protests of the 1960's Greensboro, NC sit-in movement. This site has links to the history of the sit in movement and other civil right movements. There is also a section of photos and videos that is continuously being updated, so be sure to check back frequently. Though this site is relatively new, there are several good historical timelines and chronologies.

In the Classroom

Have your students use the information about the people of the sit-in movement to write a biography. Add drama to your classroom and have students pretend to be one of the protesters. Have them write a monologue and present it to the class. Have students create public service announcement posters using Piclits (reviewed here). Use the announcements that can be found in the image gallery for examples.

This new site focuses on the Negro Baseball Leagues from their beginnings in the late 19th century until the time that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. Much of the content is the work of James A. Riley, one of the foremost experts in the study of the Negro Leagues. The site includes information on players, teams, video clips, resources and current issues.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use the site as a resource during Black History Month for students who are researching the Negro Baseball Leagues, or players who were part of the leagues. Tie together current events (during baseball season) with this historical site. Have cooperative learning groups create venn diagrams using an online tool such as the Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare the Negro Baseball Leagues to the baseball teams of today. What was the same, what is different? The site might also be useful in discussions of the Civil Rights movement or as a part of a look at segregation in the early 20th century. Check back frequently, as the site is clearly expanding and will have more information in the future.

The primary purpose of this site is to offer information and techniques for quilters; however, they also offer 3 lesson plans that can be used in elementary, middle, or high school classrooms. The elementary lesson focuses on learning fractions through dividing up quilt squares including basic and advanced activities. The middle school lesson focuses on proportions. The high school activity is based upon polynomials. These would be fun activities for students to apply these math concepts through hands-on activities.

In the Classroom

During Black History month or when learning about western expansion or colonial days, students may enjoy making quilts from fabric or paper and learning about the different patterns used in quilt making. Introduce this activity and have students label the different fractional amounts in the quilt squares. Practice adding fractions by writing the equations generated by making different quilt squares. Hang completed quilts in the classroom or hallway for an interesting display of work with fractions and proportion.

They had a Dream Too is a unit on overcoming obstacles for grades K-4. It offers profiles of several dozen famous people and asks students to research how one of these achieved success despite an impediment. The unit can be used as part of Black History month, a culminating project for a biography unit, or in any context studying accomplishments.